Customers of the company Bluemoon, which specializes in celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, complain about damage. They claim that the ceremonies were not performed even though they paid for the weddings.
The case was published in Ancelmo Gois’ column in Globo.
In a note, the company says it has struggled to reschedule parties due to the pandemic and adjustments made by suppliers. And he shares that he “tries his best to fulfill all the services contracted by our couples and clients”.
Among the victims is the married couple Júlia and Lucas Valente. They were due to get married this Saturday (2) and found out three days before that some suppliers had not been paid.
The couple paid BRL 50,000 to Bluemoon company last year to organize the party.
“Thursday we got a call from our master of ceremonies that she contacted some suppliers and they found they hadn’t been paid yet,” says software engineer Lucas Valente. “So the desperation began. We got in touch. We called more than 60 times and didn’t get any reply from them.”
In exchanging messages with one of Bluemoon’s partners this Friday (1), he collected the contracts and proof of payment. The partner said the house was confirmed and that “they ran with the decoration” but that the buffet, estimated at R$24,000, would have to be paid outside.
Lucas insisted on asking for proof of payment for what he rented and asked if they would honor their end of the contract. There was no further reaction.
To make the party, the bride and groom paid the suppliers outside.
“It was an incredible situation, we were in pieces and yesterday we had to perform a miracle. Thanks to our family, our friends and their help, we managed to close the deal with the same suppliers,” he explained. “Because, for example, they had already made the cake, our cake, they had already made our sweets, they had already made everything for us. But they weren’t paid. So nothing guarantees that we would actually have our wedding today, so yesterday, after the scare, it was so much crying over the news that we decided to shut everything down from the outside. We have closed everything from the outside. So we ended up spending even more than what we paid with Bluemoon.”
“It is sad. And we’re only going to continue our wedding today because of our family and friends who love us so much and everyone was willing to help us because if Bluemoon had its way we wouldn’t have anything.”
Lucas and Julia are not alone in this agony. A group in a messaging app was created with 250 participants.
Also in this group are Carolina and Gustavo. They signed with Bluemoon last year and will be married in October. Concerned after learning about the various nonpayments, they unsuccessfully try to contact the company.
“I tried to get in touch with the owners, right? Because when I contacted the Bluemoon Ceremony, they replied that they had told the ceremonial representatives not to speak to the clients, to the newlyweds, that they would speak fiance to fiance. And they didn’t contact us, they didn’t answer our calls, [não] responded to our messages,” said analyst Carolina Fires Resende.
On social media, suppliers warn against breaking their contract with Bluemoon.
Decorator Andrea Ramos was hired for a wedding yesterday. She said just over half the amount paid for the service.
“Roughly between 10 and 11 thousand [reais]. I received only part of the decoration fee because the wedding increased the number of guests and they had to pay extra for Bluemoon. The ceremony automatically made a maneuver so that the payment of this excess was directed to part of the decoration, so that we could make some reservations and some things in advance, since the payments were very late,” Andrea said.
complaints online
On this Saturday morning (2) there were five complaints against the company on the “Complaints here” website most of them related to events that had already been paid for and had no prospect of being realised.
There were also complaints from suppliers and people who worked at company events but were not paid.
One of the injured brides lives in Europe.
“Like many Bluemoon brides, I’m another who paid for 80% of my December wedding and it looks like the group isn’t fulfilling the contract. I live in Ireland and finalized my contract with them at 12.30pm last year .22. As my fiancé’s family lives in Italy, this would be the only available date where we could gather our families and friends with lots of love and effort for our dreamed and planned moment.”
“However, about three weeks ago, that dream was cast in doubt when our master of ceremonies informed us that there were rumors that the company was not paying the suppliers… The bombshell went off yesterday. I sent messages and they didn’t answer.” replied as he hopes that one day we can forgive him. As? Forgiving a person who destroys dreams?”
Also in “Complain here” another bride related her situation:
“We signed the contract last year. A little over a month ago we made a final payment to add more guests. After sending the receipts we had no more replies from the company. They disappeared and didn’t share anything. Master of Ceremonies warned us”.
Bluemoon describes itself on its website as the largest party company in Brazil. On the website, the company also guarantees to hold its events in nine famous venues in Rio and two in São Paulo.
The party house owner and businessman he was talking to g1 was approached by Bluemoon to incorporate his business into the company. However, he chose not to accept the proposal.
“I found it odd that they had so many party houses during the pandemic when the industry was in the midst of a crisis. I thought a lot and finally decided to reject the proposal.”
O g1 contacted the plainclothes police to find out if there was already an investigation into the situation. The institution’s press office stated that they would need the registration number or the names of the victims to conduct a search and to let them know if an investigation was ongoing.
O g1 also got in touch with one of the Bluemoon partners. He sent a statement from the company saying it has struggled to reschedule parties due to the pandemic and adjustments made by suppliers.
See the full statement.
“bluemoon is going public to officially respond to the news and articles that have appeared about the company over the past few days.
We are an events company with 5 years of experience specializing in the wedding market. There are no other activities of the company than just events. The information about the pyramid is incorrect and does not even fit the company’s field of activity.
In 5 years, the company grew and distinguished itself in the Rio wedding market, reaching more than 10 venues under his management, including the city’s main party houses. It is worth noting that the spaces currently managed by bluemoon are not owned but rather rented or in partnership with their owners. Rooms that have made history on the city’s event market and whose names, stories and traditions are infinitely greater and more important than the name and history of bluemoon.
Like the rest of the world, we are going through and suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. We were one of the first segments to close and the last to be allowed to resume operations, but we have chosen to come through this whole situation with our heads held high, appreciating the health and livelihoods of our employees, and the peace of ours Couples and clients who have been forced to postpone their weddings. Almost 100 weddings have been postponed, some 2 or 3 times.
With the return of events and the very high volume of weekly parties, averaging 8 parties per weekend, a few challenges emerged, the main one being rebalancing the values of contracts made before and during the pandemic. Despite the difficulties, bluemoon has respected all its events and has done its best to fulfill all the services contracted by our couples and customers. Almost 300 events took place in the first half of 2022 alone.
The last few weeks have been even more challenging for the company, with last week being even more difficult when suppliers and service providers issued notices stating that they would no longer be providing services to bluemoon, which of course resulted in a major shock to our customers and subsequently provided all the latest articles and reports that took us completely by surprise, mainly because of the amount of untruths mentioned.
We are in difficult times, there is no way we can deny this reality and we know our couples and clients are suffering from all of these insecurities and uncertainties even more than we are and we extend our heartfelt apologies to them and their families for all these problems.”